Wire spring relays are equipped with a plurality of closely spaced, generally parallel contacts composed of precious metals such as platinum and gold. The relays are generally used in telephone switching equipment in which they are mounted onto large frames in closely packed arrays. When these frames and relays are no longer of use they are sold in the scrap metal market. Until the present invention it was not commercially feasible to recover the precious metal contacts from the relays for subsequent refining of the precious metal due to difficulty in the removal of the contacts from the relays while mounted in the frame. Further, the high cost involved in first detaching the relays from frames rendered this alternative economically prohibitive.
Clearly, it would be advantageous to provide a simple, inexpensive, power-operated tool capable of removing a multitude of wire spring relay contacts in a single operation while the relay is still mounted in the frame.